7:41 PM Calamianes Island Adventure |
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What do you when you see a cheap airfare online and you have money to spare? Well— in our case, we pulled the big guns and bought said Cebu Pacific tickets without any tours to back it up, created the tours ourselves and enjoyed the adventure for 5 days and 4 nights last August 17-21.
Since my sister and I are adamant not to waste a single minute in Coron, Palawan, we decided to maximize the tours and minimize the time in our accommodation. This meant we don’t care if we sleep in a high class hotel or not— we’ll just sleep, rest a bit and take a bath there. We stayed in GLC and met a very nice lady named Jenny.
The room was nice with one double bed (which my sister and I shared) and one single bed (that served as an open cabinet for our things). It soooo yellow though. The bath was nice too but since it’s a lodge, we are to provide our own washroom necessities (minus the water).
We checked-in. Got things settled. Changed gears. And went off to our primary step of exploration.
FIRST DAY
First stop: LUNCH! And a big lunch we had at Lolo Nonoy’s Eatery. They serve common Filipino dishes (like Sinigang, Lechon Kawali, Embutido and such) and the best Corn Shake I’ve ever tasted.
We stayed there eating, sipping our shake, reading kindle then eating again for hours. When it’s almost time for sunset, we finally put our spoon down and went off to our next stop.
MOUNT TAPYAS
 "Why am I doing this to myself?” was what I kept thinking while climbing the 720 something steps of Mount Tapyas. This climb made me realize how weak I became after I stopped my normal exercise routine months ago. I kind of hated my sister a bit for being so cool and collected during the whole thing T_T I think I drank 3 bottles of mineral water the whole time I was there.
Guess what? Never the one to surrender from a challenge, I reached the top with flying colors (literally). The place is just breathtaking. On one side you see the city, with its busy port, its lively market and thriving industries. On the east side (facing the port), you’ll see nothing but islands, the sun in between them. It was majestic. When you walk a bit farther from the original trail up, you’ll see the beautiful mountains with clouds that surrounded them in a lover’s caress.
   I forgot being tired while up there. In fact, I think I took about 140+ pictures on that tour alone.
But just like what Newton’s Law of Gravity says, "What goes up must come down,” so after a little less effort we finally went back to the lodge to have some much needed bath and rest to fill up our tanks for the following days to come. That, my friends, was a really great appetizer.
SECOND DAY
We woke up at 6AM, got ready for a day of island hopping and ate a hearty breakfast at the lodge.
To save money, my sister and I opted to go on a tour with a group of other tourists. This tour, we decided to name CORON European Tour (kinda lame I know) because we were able to join a group composed of fellow Rizalenos, five Latinos and two French.
They were a nice and friendly bunch, and we enjoyed snorkeling, swimming, trekking and sightseeing with them so much.
HIDDEN LAGOON
 LUNCH AT CALACHUCHI BEACH
 KAYANGAN LAKE
   TWIN PEAK REEF
 CYC BEACH
 I was so tired and hungry that I forced my sister to eat dinner at Centro Coron. We ate our all time favorite Spaghetti but unfortunately, ended up not happy with their Apple and Mango shake T_T
THIRD DAY
After another day of Danggit, Tapa and Egg Filipino breakfast, we went off to our Calambuyan Island Tour with some Asian friends from Korea and China.
Hanna and her boyfriend Hwang (Koreans) were really friendly. We enjoyed picture-taking, swimming and snorkeling together. They also took several pictures using their instant camera and gave one to us as a souvenir.
LUSONG GUNBOAT SHIPWRECK
 CORAL EDEN
 CALAMBUYAN BEACH and LUNCH
   Since we did all the activities most of the morning and ate ourselves out all afternoon, we decide to retire early to our room, chilling out— reading books, again… and eating some snacks.
FOURTH DAY
Bath. Breakfast. Rain— and lots of prayer for our tour to push through.
We were astounded to reprove that Filipinos are really a race of bravery. All foreigners that were supposed to join our tour cancelled for fear of touring under the unpredictable weather. So this day, we themed as an All-Filipino Coron Tour as we went our way to Malcapuya Island.
After about an hour of tour, we experienced heavy rains. We were surrounded by clouds and we cannot see anything. Good thing our boaters had a compass with them or we might have been lost. I also learned, the hard way may I add, that rain was really a pretty hard enemy. Well— not really, but it hurts a lot when you’re on a boat ride, running at a great speed while the drops of heavy rain pour on your face and the rest of your body. Good thing there were no damages to our belongings.
When we were near the island, the sky miraculously cleared out though. It was as if we had to undergo some kind of a test before we could reach the paradise. And what a paradise it was!
MALCAPUYA ISLAND and LUNCH
    Seeing as we did nothing but chill out on our last day, we decided to mix up our self-created itinerary and go souvenir hunting. We bought souvenirs for Mama, little sis and some friends— and lots and lots and lots of cashew products. Yum!
FIFTH DAY
Fortunately, I was able to eat last night a lot of the cashew yema we bought the previous day without my sister’s interference. So we had to get up early to eat our last breakfast at the lodge and then proceeded to our Coron City Tour and Souvenir Hunting Part 2.
LUALHATI PARK
 HARBOR VIEW
  SOUVENIR HUNTING
  Time to go back home. It was really sad to leave the peace and quiet I found here. Some would think that five days and 4 nights are too much time to spend on a not-so-big place but I guarantee that it will be all worth it— and it will leave you thirsting for more.
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